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Learning from the Learners – September 2, 2007
The month I graduated from teachers’ college – June, 1969 – Herbert
Kohl’s book The Open Classroom (Random House, 1969) was
published. I read it that summer and perhaps it contributed to the
frustration I felt in my first (and last) few months as a classroom
teacher. In the book, Kohl advocates an organic, realistic and less
patriarchal approach to being a teacher in a public school – something
that I wasn’t able to envision, let alone implement, so I resigned,
never to teach school again. And the rest of my educational advocacy
career is, as they say, history. Kohl’s output now numbers more than 40
books, including I Won’t Learn From You (Milkweed Editions,
1991), in which he suggests that learning not to learn is a difficult,
intellectual activity that is a manifestation of resistance to
oppression and a sign of a survivor in a hostile environment.
I’ve just finished his latest book, a memoir called
Painting Chinese: A Lifelong Teacher Gains the Wisdom of Youth
(Bloomsbury, 2007). Honestly and humbly, Kohl describes how, late in a
productive life and searching for something new to engage in, he
stumbled into a Chinese painting class…where his fellow students were
all young Chinese children. He writes about studying alongside the
children while reflecting on his life. Painting took on a meditative
quality and helped him come to terms with waning energy and the
cancellation of a beloved university program. But more importantly to
me, the supportive environment and hands-on, noncompetitive learning
process he experienced in the painting classes led him to articulate
things he’s danced around in his long career as writer, educator and
social justice advocate. Kohl’s body of work is focused on helping
teachers fit the square peg of unstructured creative learning into the
round hole of school environments. Learning with children rather than
teaching them has given him a seemingly new perspective. “Children,” he
writes, “when unencumbered by adult demands and channeling educational
structures, are extraordinary watchers and learn through what they see
and experience.”
Posted:
2007/09/02 12:58 PM
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